Dublin
Ireland

commissions@sculpturedublin.ie Further information

Sculpture Dublin Commission | O’Connell Plinth, Dublin City Hall

Sculpture Dublin aims to raise awareness of Dublin’s sculptural heritage and to commission new sculptures in parks and public spaces city-wide. It is a Dublin City Council initiative, developed by Parks and Landscape Services and the City Arts Office, and supported by the Hugh Lane Gallery and Visual Artists Ireland. Dublin City Council will commission a public sculpture in each of the DCC administrative areas: North West, North Central, Central, South Central and South East. The curatorial framework for Sculpture Dublin will be structured around the specificities of each commission site, with strong emphasis on context, user-communities and topographical features. Please note artists can apply for one Sculpture Dublin commission only.

Additional to the five permanent commissions, a special temporary artwork will be developed for the O’Connell Plinth at Dublin City Hall on Dame Street, Dublin 2.

Artist Brief: Artist-Brief-OConnell-Plinth.pdf
Budget: The total budget for this commission is €50,000. This is inclusive of all costs and VAT
Stage 1 Deadline: 21 August, 12 noon
Site Visit: A site visit for interested artists will take place outside City Hall at 12 noon on Friday 7 August 2020. The briefing will include a question and answer session, and will be filmed and posted on Vimeo.

Invitation:
This commission invites artists to respond to a historical plinth that has stood empty in the centre of Dublin city for over 150 years. The O’Connell Plinth at City Hall was originally constructed to support the monumental statue of Daniel O’Connell – ‘The Liberator’ – that is now located inside the building. The removal of the statue in the 1860s dispossessed the plinth of its intended purpose, transforming it from a conventional mechanism of display into a vacant anomaly. The space left behind by the O’Connell statue is a provocation, one that demands a physical and conceptual response. It is waiting to be occupied – but by what?

Through a two-stage open competition Sculpture Dublin asks artists to propose a new temporary public artwork for the O’Connell Plinth. Stage One calls for artists to submit proposals for a sculpture to be installed on the plinth for a period of 12 months from June 2021.

Commissioning a new artwork for the O’Connell Plinth is an opportunity to restore to it its original function: the public display of sculpture. Artists may choose to address the plinth’s associations with City Hall and Daniel O’Connell – and in turn their associations with officialdom, civil bureaucracy, political idealism, the pursuit of freedom and the weight of history – in their proposals. Given the time and place of its origin in nineteenth century Ireland the plinth is implicated in broader contemporary discussions about traditional public statuary and its commemoration of predominantly white, male dignitaries and worthies at the exclusion of others. It is also symbolic of ‘the plinth’ as conceptual object and means of display / presentation within the canon of art history. Artists are free to engage with these ideas or to propose alternative concepts and approaches in response to this commissioning opportunity.It is envisaged that this commission will promote more meaningful interaction between people and place by attracting attention to the plinth and raising awareness of its presence within a busy city-centre streetscape.

The commission may also act as the catalyst for a series of future temporary public art commissions for the empty plinth.For more information about the plinth’s location and photographs, please see brief.

The O’Connell Plinth measures approx. 300 x 110 x 90 cm (height x width x depth). It is made up of six blocks of Dalkey granite, with mouldings at the base and top. It is, overall, in good condition. Any new artwork will need to be fixed securely to the top of the plinth. Stage Two submissions will require a structural engineer’s report. Agreement on how the proposed work is to be fixed to the plinth will need to be established through consultation with Dublin City Council Conservation Architects, Conservation and Heritage Office before sign-off. No holes may be drilled into or fixtures erected against the façade of the building to provide bracing for the work.Plans for installation and de-installation of the work should demonstrate clear consideration of the site’s historic context, and utmost care given to the preservation of the building, surrounding balustrade, etc.

Stage 1:
This is a two-stage, open competition. Stage One is open to all interested artists. Submissions should be submitted electronically via the Sculpture Dublin website: www.sculpturedublin.ie

Artists should provide the following information as part of their submission:

  • Contact information (name, address, email address and phone number). To be entered into an online form on the Sculpture Dublin website.
  • CV: please submit an up-to-date curriculum vitae. Maximum 3 pages to be uploaded as a single PDF document to the Sculpture Dublin website.
  • Documentation of work: please submit up to 5 examples of relevant, previous work, including written descriptions, photographs, and where relevant links to videos hosted on Vimeo. All information should be compiled into a single PDF document to be uploaded to the Sculpture Dublin website.
  • Proposal: outlining each of the following:
  • Artistic vision for the commission (concept, process and proposed work);
  • How the vision for the work relates to the context and site;
  • Visualisations and descriptions of the proposed work (i.e. visual material, technical drawings, working methodology, installation etc.);
  • An outline project plan, budget and timeline.
  • All Proposal information should be compiled into a single PDF document to be uploaded to the Sculpture Dublin web

 

The Selection Panel will then evaluate submissions against the Selection Criteria (see brief) and choose a shortlist of up to five proposals. Shortlisted artists will be invited to make a more detailed Stage Two proposal.

Stage 2:
Stage Two will comprise of a limited competition with up to five shortlisted artists invited by the Selection Panel to make submissions. A detailed brief will be issued for this stage. Shortlisted artists will be requested to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the concept, methodology, technical information, time frame and finances of their proposal in Stage Two. Following receipt of second stage proposals, the Selection Panel will make a final decision. Artists may be invited to attend an interview with the Selection Panel before a final selection is made.

Shortlisted artists will be paid a fee of €1,000 for completing the Stage Two submission/application process.

Selection Panel:
The Selection Panel will consist of some or all of the following: Two City Councillors (preferably including the Lord Mayor); Representative of DCC Parks and Landscape Services; Representative(s) of the City Arts Office; Representative of the Hugh Lane Gallery; A member of the Sculpture Dublin Steering Group; DCC Conservation Architect and/or representative of the Heritage Office; External expert (artist/curator).

Queries:
Artists are welcome to submit queries about this brief and the commissioning process to Karen Downey by 12 noon on 14 August 2020. Please email any enquiries to commissions@sculpturedublin.ie with “Query: Sculpture Dublin – O’Connell Plinth Commission” as a reference in the subject line.